One of the priorities of the Poverty and Inequality Advisory Unit is to promote the incorporation of evaluation strategies within Bank lending operations. In November 1998, the Unit held a meeting with a group of leading experts in the field of program design and impact evaluation schemes, together with representatives from Progresa, an anti-poverty program in Mexico. In February 1999, the Unit organized a workshop with senior Argentine policymakers and other leading experts to discuss the new anti-poverty program in Argentina - the Income for Human Resource Development Program. The Unit has produced the following papers on evaluation:

• Impact Evaluation Methods for Social Programs (Technical Note 2), by Ferdinando Regalia. (This technical note presents an overview of the methods used to evaluate social programs.)
• Appraising Workfare Programs, by Martin Ravallion.
• July 2000 Evaluation Workshop Presentations.

The Unit plans to continue its work on impact evaluation on several fronts. First, we will continue to offer our services as a facilitator and convene short meetings on the topic, bringing to the Bank outside experts who can comment on specific projects or themes. Second, we will support selecting two pilot projects from each of the Bank's three regions, and designing and implementing a rigorous evaluation scheme from inception in each selected project. Such projects could be monitored over time and successful experiences could be widely disseminated. In addition, the Unit plans to commission a series of technical notes on monitoring and evaluation that could serve as guidelines for the operational departments of the Bank. Topics to be addressed include a discussion of the methodological issues involved in designing evaluations of social and economic programs, and a checklist of elements to be included in the design of a successful evaluation strategy.

Last updated: 04/26/07